


The Sun Is Bright, The Sun Is Blue

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, First Time, Meet-Cute, Post-Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Shares a Plot With Literally Every Romance Novel I've Ever Read, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-20 20:52:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9515012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: CT-1125 falls out of the sky and into a new life.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Measured_Words](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/gifts).



> I am using the backstory as supplied by Pablo Hidalgo that Shaeeah and Jek are half-human, but were far too old to be Cut's biological children given the timeline.
> 
> I hope you like it!

His body ached. His soul ached more. CT-1125 felt blood dripping from the gash in his side. The blaster burns along his legs stung. The Separatist droids made their way through the wounded survivors of his company, turning them into the dead. He couldn't see the faces of his brothers under their helmets. He could only hear their groans.

"Two Six," he whispered to his closest brother. "Two Six, can you walk?" His own legs weren't steady. He couldn't carry another.

Two Six let out a sob, and that chilled CT-1125. Clones didn't weep. The Kaminoans had pulled that ability out of their programming. "It hurts," said Two Six. "It hurts bad."

The heavy feet and blasters were coming closer. "Come on, Two Six. We have to get out of here."

Another sob. CT-1125 placed his hand on his brother's head. His vision was blurry, and it was night here, but now he saw the spreading dark pool under the other clone. Without immediate medical attention, Two Six wasn't going to make it. Their medic was already dead. The kindest act CT-1125 could take now was to pull his own blaster and end his friend's agony before the droids arrived.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he touched their helmets together. Two Six wasn't his closest friend in this company, but he was the only one here to say good-bye to before CT-1125 wrenched himself away and staggered off. Behind him, the blaster bolts continued, one or two at a time, every shot ending another life. He wasn't sure which one killed Two Six. He was too busy dying inside from each echo. His steps slipped, crackling branches and sticks under his boots as he fled into the forest where they'd crashed. The droids would hear him. They would chase him down. Every moment, he expected the loud blaze of another shot, and the burning bolt through his own body.

Instead, the noises of his brothers' deaths fell away behind him. He didn't see the Separatist ships lift off when their grisly work was finished, only heard the dull thud of their engines from a distance. Then the forest lit up from the explosion as they bombed the remains of his transport. Any hope he'd let himself keep that some of the others might have survived burned with the ruin of their ship. He was alone. He had never been alone in his entire life.

This planet was wooded, filled with huge trees and scampering wildlife. To CT-1125, it was the most alien world he'd ever visited. Far off, he saw the lights of a settlement glowing in the sky in the breaks between the high leaves. He couldn't walk that far, not tonight. He found a tree with low-lying branches spread out like a roof, crawled beneath them, and passed out in a drift of old leaves, not knowing if he'd ever wake.

* * *

A growling stomach dragged him up from sleep. CT-1125 startled as his eyes opened, and he saw the strange darkness of his hard bed. He removed his helmet, letting himself drink in deep lungfuls of crisp air. He didn't know the smells of this planet. Was the air clean? Were there predators nearby?

The aches and pains from yesterday reminded him where he was, and why he was alone. Gentle prods to his wounds told him they'd clotted in the night. He would live. The rest of his squad would not.

CT-1125 looked at his helmet, the same issue as the helmets all the clones wore. He could just make out a vague outline of his own reflection in the last unsmudged part. He was indistinguishable from the good men who had died yesterday, except he had survived. He ought to find a means of contacting the Republic. He ought to return to the war, and fight in their memory.

He heard Two Six sobbing in pain.

He left the helmet under the tree, and headed towards the settlement.

* * *

It was market day, and CT-1125 could not stop his mouth from watering. He hadn't eaten since the day before yesterday, the day of the battle. The carts and stalls around him promised meals he couldn't afford. Clones didn't carry credits. He had his blaster, and what kit was on his belt. These only earned him wary looks from the vendors. Humans, Twi'leks, half a dozen other species wandered the stalls, bargaining for meals and bustling through the knots of people as they enjoyed the clear, bright day. He tried to follow the way they spoke to each other, but as soon as he approached, faces closed off. These people knew one another. They didn't know him.

He could still ask for a transmitter. He could call home. A soldier's life was hard, and short, but his superiors kept him fed and gave him work to do. He had no experience of freedom. Could he go back to the forest? Build himself a crude hut, hunt game with his blaster until the charge died? He'd been given survival training. That didn't feel like surviving. That felt like extending out the same death that had been given the other clones.

CT-1125 found a place to sit where the bright sun warmed his bones. He would rest, and he would think. Then he would ask someone for the means to contact home.

A little girl darted by him, dashing down the street. He turned to watch her, amused in the uninhibited play of a small child. Suddenly, a cry came from close by. "Shaeeah! Get back here!"

A Twi'lek woman, carrying an even smaller child in her arms, stood alone at one stall, clearly torn between watching her business and chasing her daughter. CT-1125 stood. "I'll fetch her, ma'am."

A few long strides caught up with the little girl. Rather than startle her, he stepped in front of the child, bent down and opened his arms. "Would you like to fly?"

Her heels skidded as she stopped, suddenly shy. CT-1125 took the chance to take her in a secure grip around the waist, then lifted her high into the air. She squealed in delight as he jogged her back towards her mother, her arms spread out like a bird. The moment he reached the stall, CT-1125 set her down and took a step away to show he had no intent of harming her.

Relief flooded her mother's tired face as she bent down to her daughter. "You cannot run off, Shaeeah. I need you to stay here with me. Do you understand?"

The girl nodded, though a mischievous flash of her eyes to CT-1125 suggested she wanted another ride in the air, and might run off just to get one.

The woman stood, shifting her hold on her son. "Thank you for your help. These two have been trouble ever since they learned to walk." She eased the words by rubbing her nose against the boy's, which made him giggle. She glanced at her stall. Now that he saw it up close, he noticed her wares weren't much, and she observed the same. Nevertheless she said, "Please, take a norcon root."

His pride almost refused, but his hunger was greater. He chose a small one and was about to take a bite when she pushed his hand away. "You can't eat them raw. Didn't you know that?"

His face fell. "No. I'm new here."

A buyer came up to the stall, and the woman ignored CT-1125 to settle on a price for five pieces of her norcon root. He considered walking away, but the little girl kept watching him. He grinned at her, distracting her with a wave while her mother finished up the buyer's purchase. She grinned, then picked up a datapad with a toddler-safe screen. She held it up to him, showing the shaky pictures she'd drawn, skewed letters around them.

As he watched, she traced the letters of her own name, slanting into tiny letters as she crushed up to the edge. Her mother gave the work a smile.

He had an idea. "Look, ma'am. I need work, just for today. I could help you watch your stall while you deal with your children, if you could help me cook this up after." He held out the root. His stomach gurgled, and he ignored it. Food was food, even delayed food. He could call for a transport tonight. "Do you have someone helping you out?"

He'd meant it as a polite enquiry, but her face twisted into something he didn't know how to read, not then. "No." She came to a decision. "I would appreciate the help. For a day's work, I could give you a meal. Nothing more."

"A meal is more than I've got. Thank you."

"I'm Suu. Suu Lawquane. This is Jek. You've met Shaeeah."

"Hi!" said the little girl.

"It's nice to meet you." Suu's arms were full, so he took the opportunity to shake her daughter's tiny hand gravely. "My designation is CT...." He paused as he let go. Most people didn't have numbers as part of their names.

Shaeeah scribbled the two letters as he said them, then squinted. "Cut?"

"Yes," he said. "Cut. My name is Cut." Many clones, older than he was, had taken or been given names, some for battle prowess, some for teasing. He didn't know of a single clone who'd been given his name by a child. He smiled at her, then nodded to her mother as his commanding officer for the day. "Now, how much should I charge for these roots, ma'am?"

* * *

Roasted norcon root, mashed and sprinkled with a little salt, was the finest meal he had ever tasted. He recognized this perception was almost certainly due to his deep hunger, but still he knew from the first bite this dish was much better than any rations he'd ever swallowed. He tried not to bolt down his serving. Savoring made it last longer, and he was unlikely to be offered a second helping.

While he ate, Shaeeah worked her own spoon into her mouth with decent precision, while Jek managed to hit everywhere on his face except between his lips. Suu abandoned her own plate to feed him. "There. It's not nutritious when it's on your chin." The boy laughed.

"He's not talking yet?"

"No. Shaeeah took a long time to learn to speak. I'm sure he'll catch up soon."

"They're cute." This was an appropriate thing to say about children, he was sure. "When does their father get home?"

He instantly realized he'd committed another blunder. Her face smoothed out from the wounded expression, and Cut swore to himself he'd find a way never to put it there ever again. "He's dead."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up." 

Suu shrugged, and in the shrug were many words he didn't yet hear. In the years to come, she would speak little of the man. Cut only learned his name when he found the children's birth records. Ordin Talbot had been a trader. To a teenaged girl who'd never left her home province on Ryloth, he had seemed a well-seasoned and wise traveler who'd promised to show her the stars. He wasn't a bad man. Suu always said this, especially when the children could hear. He'd never hurt her, never hit her or called her a bad name. He hadn't married her, not when their first child was on the way, not after the second's birth. He'd died in a bar fight almost a year ago. Suu had taken the little money he'd left them, and added to it the little money she could make growing crops on her square of farmland, and she had tried to build a life for her children here. Half-humans had no place on Ryloth, her parents had informed her, and that had been her last conversation with them.

Cut pieced this together over months. Tonight, there was only the shrug.

The property had a well with a pump outside. Cut took the chance to wash up, taking a hard look at his injuries. Suu gave him her own small medical kit, filled with plenty of bacta patches and a few antibiotic injectors which hadn't expired. He wasn't positive if the same antibiotics that worked for Twi'leks would be good for humans, but he supposed the worst that could happen was it would kill him, and by rights, he should already be dead.

"You can make up a bed on the floor by the fire," she said. "You should know, I sleep with a blaster next to my bed, and I am a perfect shot."

"Understood, ma'am. Thank you for the lodging. I'll be out of your way tomorrow."

She brought him a few blankets, which he used to pad his sore body and his head. The fire crackled low. He was more comfortable than he'd been last night in the forest, and he had a full belly.

In his dreams he heard the blasters cutting down men who all shared his face.

* * *

Cut woke well before dawn, aching from the wounds and the dreams. He stepped outside, washing his face with the cold water at the pump, then sat on the front step, not really thinking, just listening to the noises around him: distant stirring from other farmers down the road, a lone engine noises from the settlement as a ship landed, more of the same animal rustling he'd heard in the forest. Trees pressed in at the property line, just as dark and mysterious as when he'd walked among them. He longed for the sleek lines of a starship, and the clean, safe harbor of a barracks among men he knew.

While he sat and wished to be home, a creature walked out of the trees. Half the size of an adult human, it sniffed the ground in front of itself, ignoring him as it paused at a patch of green leaves. He lifted his hand to his face, startling it, and sending it dashing with graceful leaps back into the forest. He listened to its feet patter through the undergrowth, hurrying away.

The sun rose, a cheering blue figure that cast the morning dew into sparkling crystals.

* * *

Suu kept a small flock of nunas in a shed behind the house. The house wasn't much larger than the shed, now that he had a good look around. The cooking and living area took up half the space, and the rest was dedicated to one bedroom which Suu shared with her kids. The shed attached to the house through a half-door, where Suu could easily reach into the nesting boxes for fresh eggs, which she also sold when she had a surplus.

Fried nuna eggs were the second-best meal Cut had ever eaten.

"I suppose you'll be leaving," Suu said, as he washed up the breakfast dishes for her.

"I should find a transmitter. My company was shot down over this planet. The Grand Army of the Republic doesn't even know I'm still alive. I'm a soldier."

She nodded. "You hadn't said, but I guessed. There was a battle overhead a few days ago. That was you?"

"Mostly, that was the Separatists. They ambushed my ship. Killed everyone but me."

"I am sorry for the loss of your friends."

He nodded. "You won't have seen people like me before. We're clones. We've been bred for battle, and loss. It's who we are."

"You also wash dishes well. Have you ever tilled a field?"

"Not in my programming, ma'am." He watched her face. He still wasn't good at reading her expressions, anyone's expressions. He did notice that hers seemed to brighten as he added, "But I was designed to be a fast learner."

Cut didn't go into town to find the transmitter. He reasoned with himself that it made more sense to wait until the next market day, which was a week away. Suu didn't mind him staying on if he was helping. Two adults meant the farm labor could be managed, and the children minded, without losing sight of either one. As he chased Shaeeah across the plot of land, Cut marveled to himself that Suu had managed for so long on her own.

The work was hard, both inside and outside, and he hadn't been born to scratching in the dirt for matured roots. His wounds ached more that night. He changed the dressing, noting the skin was starting to mend. He'd be back in fighting shape in no time. For now, he had a warm place to sleep on the floor, and good food to eat, and a pleasant companion to talk with as they worked side by side.

He soon discovered why she had so little to sell at market. Not only was the farm small, and not only was the work a lot for one person, but beggars came to her door almost every day, and were given a root or an egg or even a piece of the succulent lam fruits which grew on three young trees on the property. Cut didn't dare object. He knew he was another hard luck case she'd chosen to assist for her own reasons.

"We always help those in need," she said to Shaeeah each time today's supplicant had come and gone. The little girl nodded, taking in the lesson. She squealed in delight as Cut lifted her up, letting her help pick the highest pieces of ripe fruit. With his help, there was more than enough to share today.

* * *

Market day dawned cloudy and chilly. Suu dressed the children in warm clothes, and shivered as she and Cut packed up the week's harvest onto the small cart. Normally, she would set the children into the cart as well, hauling them and the food all the way to the settlement's center square. Today, Cut pulled the cart with Shaeeah skipping beside him and Jek in his mother's arms. The cart had room for plenty of roots and fruits. They'd eaten all the eggs and had none for sale.

His steps slowed as they reached the settlement.

Suu said, "There's a transmitter in the town hall. I'm sure they'll let you use it. You can take some of the lam fruits with you to eat while you wait for your ship."

"That's very kind of you," he said. Everything she did was kind. He turned his head, watching Shaeeah pause to inspect an interesting rock before darting ahead several steps to chase an insect. She needed minding, especially here in town. "I was thinking, I could go to the town hall after the sale. You need help at the stall. It would be no trouble."

Suu closed her eyes. Then she kissed Jek, setting him down beside his sister. "Stay here. Cut, I'd like a word, please."

She kept close eye on the children while she took him several paces away. "You have been a great help this week, and I appreciate the work you've done. But I believe now is best for you to stop spending time with the children."

"What? Why?"

She sighed. "Because they won't remember you. Because you will pass into a pleasant memory, and then into a dream, and then into nothing. They will not harbor some vain hope that you will return. The more time you spend with them now, the more they risk the pain of realizing you are not coming back. I would like to spare them."

"I'm not sure I understand. But if that's what will make you happy, then I'll abide by your request."

"Yes. You should get going then." She pointed. "Straight that way. The largest building in town. You can't miss it."

"Thank you." He wouldn't walk over to the children now to say good-bye. This was better. But the ache was back, the same that hurt after his brothers died, not his injuries but his soul.

He took three steps, and turned back to her. She was watching him. "Suu?" It was the first time he'd ever used her name.

She folded her arms, and that was a self-protective gesture he understood. "Yes?"

"If you had the say, and there were no army, would it make you happier if I walked away now, or if I stayed on? As a farmhand?" he added, heart beating in his mouth. "If it was up to you, would you prefer I stay or leave?"

She made the pained face again, and that hurt him. "Why are you asking?"

"Because I could stay." He thought about his brothers. He thought about the sounds of blasters from the last battle, and the battle before on Geonosis. He thought about duty, and the sound of shrieking joy as he raised a little girl to the tallest tree branches, holding her tightly so she wouldn't fall. "If you wanted me to, I could stay. I would."

The children played with another interesting rock, oblivious. Suu's eyes went to them, with a mixture of worry and hope in her gaze. A strange man was dangerous. This strange man was her friend.

"I would like you to stay," she said.

Cut smiled. "All right. I'll stay."

* * *

They used a little of the money from the market to buy Cut some simple but hard-wearing clothes better suited to farming. He put his uniform away, keeping with him only the pieces that could be used for daily wear.

He folded his blankets neatly and put them away when he wasn't sleeping, and he swept the floor each day to keep his 'bed' clean. He learned to cook under Suu's guidance. A soldier ate what was put in front of him, she told him as he stirred a bubbling stew, but a man should know how to feed himself. They feasted on his successes, and managed to swallow his losses.

Each night, Suu and Cut took turns teaching Shaeeah to write, then read to Jek to encourage him to learn to talk. The evening rituals opened entirely new worlds for Cut. Simple stories, animals walking upright or lost from their masters and returning home, these were unknown to his own rapid childhood. He had learned his letters from technical manuals. The first numbers he'd known were his name. He could identify every piece of his sidearm. He'd never read a poem before the nonsense book Shaeeah loved to hear each night. Some nights, after the other three had closed the door to their bedroom, Cut pulled out the picture books on his own, and reread the magical tales with rhymes and simple words.

"The sun is bright, the sun is blue, may I come to play with you," he mouthed, watching a lop-eared creature frolic from page to page.

* * *

He had lived there for a month, counting the first week he hadn't known he was living with them. His hands had cracked and bled, and formed calluses. His battle wounds were completely healed, and if he still heard Two Six sob in his dreams, he also woke to Jek's cries, and held him as he walked the boy back and forth until he settled from his own infant nightmares into deeper sleep.

Tonight, Suu had rocked Jek to sleep early, placing him into the large bed the three of them shared. "Shaeeah, you too."

"Okay," she said in her sleepy voice. She hugged Cut like she did every evening. "Night night."

"Good night." He patted her head covering. He'd made the mistake of petting her lekku affectionately once, and never would again.

Suu tucked her in, then shut the door with the children inside.

"I should turn in soon," Cut said. He wasn't tired, although he ought to be. He'd worked hard in the field today. Cold water had washed away the dirt and the sweat, but did little to relieve the pain in his back. Instead of weariness, he felt a curious energy as Suu sat next to him on the tiny cushioned bench that served as their only comfortable piece of furniture. It was just wide enough for them both to sit, and only long enough for Jek or Shaeeah to use for a nap. Cut had spent more than one night on the hard floor wishing the soft cushion was larger.

Suu sat back against the soft rest, and to his surprise, took his hand in hers.

Cut stared at their fingers together, her bright pink against his deepening tan. He wasn't naive. His programming had included basic information about different mating rituals among various species, if only to warn the clone troopers not to inadvertantly propose marriage while intending to say hello. He also knew his fellow clones sometimes took that instructed theory and put it into enjoyable practice amongst themselves. A warrior's bond between two men led to deeper loyalty in battle, or so the thought went. They'd seemed happy. He hoped they had found as much happiness as they could before the end.

No one had ever held his hand before. As Suu watched him in the flickering light from the fire, he knew he'd never had cause to see another person as beautiful before. He'd certainly never leaned over to someone like this, bringing their faces close.

Protocol had its sway. A clone had his orders. A clone must yield to civilian authority, or he wasn't a soldier but only an armed bully. "I would like to kiss you," he said, not sure if he'd known he would say the words before they came out, but enjoying them just the same. He almost said them again, and thought better of it. That might be weird.

Her lips quirked into a smile. She might think he was teasing her, although by now she ought to know him well enough to remember he didn't make many jokes.

"I would like that, too."

He startled, for a moment caught by his own lack of knowledge. Then her free hand touched his face and brought his mouth against hers, breathing into him, her lips much better at this than his.

The scattered energy keeping him awake tonight focused on the feeling of her kiss and the warm softness of her skin as he touched her shoulders. Suu's hands held his face, kissing him as though she'd wanted to since they'd met. He hadn't even known this was something he could want. Now his body longed for many things for which he had only clinical, chilly names.

They didn't make love that night. Looking back, Cut realized she would have taken him to bed in his thin blankets on the floor. Tonight, they were still too new to reading each other's signals, and his own reading comprehension was still learning "The sun is bright, the sun is blue." They kissed, and touched each other where their skin showed past their clothes. When Suu finally went into the bedroom without him, Cut was even more awake than before, painfully aware of himself as someone with desires that were his own and no other's. He wanted this woman, and the want robbed him of dreams as he lay there aching for her, watching the dying embers of the fire.

* * *

His lack of sleep made him grumpier than usual during the next day. He tried to make up by showing extra patience with the children when all he wanted was another few hours of rest.

The day seemed endless, digging out roots. He took a break for a few minutes at the end of one row, sitting on his heels. He could have slept like this. A blaster shot screamed out. In an instant, he was back on his transport, crashed and bloodied and surrounded by the dead. His instincts moved his hands to his belt for his weapon, but he didn't carry a weapon. His throat tightened. He heard Two Six's dying cries.

When his vision cleared a moment later, he watched a large animal dart past him a few meters away. Suu fired another shot, frightening it off.

"A hedvore," she said, mistaking his shock for confusion. "They harry the nunas. The children are too large to be carried off now, but I wouldn't trust the beasts not to try."

His mouth held a sour taste. His brain wouldn't accept they were away from the transport, away from all the death. "You said you were a perfect shot."

"I wasn't aiming to kill it. I wanted it gone."

* * *

When Suu put the children to bed early that night, Cut said, "Great idea. I'm exhausted." He placed his blankets on the floor, ready to sleep.

"You're sure?" she asked.

"I'm sure. Good night."

Hindsight made this much funnier. They tried to tell the kids about it once, after Shaeeah began to date. Neither wanted to hear another word.

* * *

On the third night, his back was sore, but hers was an agony. They'd lost two nunas to a wild hedvore, certainly the same one from yesterday. Cut had wrestled with the beast before Suu shot it, but it had landed on him, trapping him, and she'd had to lift the heavy thing from him without his assistance. Hedvore meat was no good to eat, and this one had appeared sickly and bedraggled even if they'd butchered it despite their distaste. This had not been a good day.

After the children were sent to bed, Cut offered to trade shoulder rubs with Suu. This earned him that same quirky smile he was learning to love. "What?" he asked. "We're both sore."

"You seem so worldly, and I forget the things you do not know. Yes, I would like that."

Suu sat away from him on the small bench. His hands found her shoulders, searching for the correct pressure to massage her muscles. His hands moved to her back, accidentally brushing her head tails as he did. She tensed. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine."

He worked on the tight muscle knots he found, and was rewarded by her happy sighs. The thought of making her content and rested eased his own burdens. He enjoyed touching her back, enjoyed the sight of her head turning as he worked his way through her catalog of pains.

"Better?"

"Yes," she said, with a deep voice he had only heard once from her, when she'd said good night two nights ago. "I can help you now. Lie down."

He saw what she meant, and got his blankets ready. His breath quickened as her fingers helped him pull his shirt over his head. She hissed when she saw his scars. He had a few from Geonosis, and a few more from his final battle. She helped him down and began rubbing her palms over the sore places in his back, going for a deep pressure that both hurt and felt amazing. His eyes drifted shut.

He felt the last of his tension relax away.

Then he felt her kiss his back, right between his shoulders.

Cut opened his eyes. If he sat up, he'd knock her off. She kissed him again, leaving a pattern of kisses over his skin.

"Suu?"

The kisses stopped. "Yes?"

"I'm going to roll over now. I didn't want to startle you."

He felt her move, and he rolled to a sitting position. The fire was their only light, and it lit the brilliant pink of her skin into lava. The sight of her enflamed him. She might burn him.

She kissed his mouth.

He let himself enjoy her kiss, let his hands find the same flesh where he'd rubbed her shoulders earlier, this time stroking gently. He broke the kiss and said, "I need you to know I will be terrible at this. All of this." What was happening wasn't just for tonight, not just testing theory and putting it into practice. If he held her now, he would hold her forever.

"I know. But you are a quick learner."

The first thing he learned was how to help her out of her clothes, and how exquisitely soft her breasts were. He learned he could stroke her lekku with care, and bring out a short moan of delight from her just rubbing his lips down the tender length of each in turn. He learned that kissing her belly as she'd kissed his back pleased him as much as it pleased her.

Suu learned how well Cut took instruction, never as criticism, only as potential for improvement. She learned how to make him shiver with the tips of her fingers, drawn in a chilly arc down his sides. She learned the simple truth of his creation, one he'd always known: clones were never meant to father children, and had been rendered infertile by design. He could love her, and she would not conceive, and this detail was something she would have liked to have learned weeks ago.

Cut would learn much more on other nights, learn the ways of her body, learn how to draw out her pleasure and his own with his mouth and hands. Tonight he learned how sweet Suu's face was as she lowered herself onto him, and how tight she was around him, with a wet heat that squeezed and clung as they moved together in the firelight. He learned the sight of her, and the shape of the moans in her mouth as he touched her face. He learned how beautiful she was when her body flushed and trembled, gasping at the intense waves rolling through her. He learned what that felt like moments later. 

After, Suu wrapped the blankets around them both, resting with him. "We need a bigger bed," she said in sleepy peace.

He kissed her. "We need a bigger house."

"I would like that."

They dozed by the fire, waking twice during the night to love each other again, learning the tender places on ears and necks and more. They dressed early, well before the kids were out of bed, yet delayed by the need to find each other's mouths over and over. Back aboard his ship, back with his men, he would have been expected to be dressed within one minute and out the door within two. This morning, it took the better part of a wonderful hour just to get his trousers on. The last button on his shirt was fastened just as Shaeeah opened the door to her room, yawning and hungry and wondering where her mother was.

Cut cooked breakfast. Suu got the children clean and dressed. They had a lot to do this morning. It was market day.

* * *

Saleucami was located far in the Outer Rim. The war might rage around the Core Worlds, and it might venture to others, but this planet looked as though it would be left alone for a long, long time. Homesteads were available for any willing to till the soil and build their own houses and pay their taxes. Clone trooper CT-1125 had died with his squad as far as the galaxy knew. Cut Lawquane was just another aspiring homesteader, as was his lovely wife. A homestead away from prying questions made their lives easier and gave the children wide open spaces to play in as they grew up.

With hard work, they harvested enough to feed themselves and to sell the surplus for luxuries they couldn't cultivate, build, or milk themselves. Life on this world was not easy, but it was theirs. Their family would be safe here, far from the war, learning to construct something unique together.

Clones weren't born to marry, and raise children, and seek happiness. The first lesson he taught both children was that their birth didn't decide who they were, or who they could be. Shaeeah announced she wanted to join the GAR when she grew up. Suu kissed her head and told her they could talk about it later. Cut promised he'd teach her how to disassemble and clean her blaster when she was older, but for now she needed to pick up her toys and make her bed.

Jek's first word was "Daddy," to no one's surprise at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Companion fic: [Seedlings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12442557)


End file.
